Fishingboat Shooting Incident: Is Taiwan Over-reacting?

Since the shooting incident involving a Taiwanese fishing boat and a Philippine law enforcement boat, Taiwan has been in a rage to "bring justice" to the death of one of its fisherman. In the meantime, everything seems normal on the Philippine side, elections has just been concluded and all politicians are more concerned on the vote counting and winning than anything else.

The Taiwanese fishing boat Guang Ta Hsin 28

BFAR patrol boat MCS-3001, jointly manned by PCG & BFAR crew

The Taiwanese are insisting that the Philippines do three things, as follows:

1. make a public formal apology for the "murder" of their fisherman;

2. speed-up of investigations and punishment for the perpetrators;

3. pay compensation to the family of the dead fisherman.

Other than that, they also demand the Philippines to enter into talks with Taiwan regarding fishing rights on overlapping EEZs.

So far the Philippine response as of writing this are:

1. they sympathize with the fisherman's death, but no apology is required;

2. Taiwan should not make matters worse;

Taiwan's 72-hour ultimatum ends this midnight, and if their demands are not met, they will will freeze hiring of Filipino workers and use their economic superiority against the Philippines.

1. Setting the EEZ Boundaries

According to Searoundus.org, blue color shows Taiwan's EEZ. The green color shows disputed EEZ. The incident happened outside Taiwan's EEZ if based on this photo.

It should be noted that since Taiwan is not recognized as an independent country by the United Nations, they are not a signatory of the UNCLOS although the Philippines adheres to this international agreement as a UN signatory.

Following the laws on EEZ, the overlap of two country's EEZ will require both countries to agree on the boundary. So far it appears that both countries have not made any agreement on the boundary of their EEZ, so Taiwan insists that the waters of overlapping EEZ are disputed.

But most sources on EEZ show that the accepted boundary of both country's EEZ is somewhere mid-way of the overlap, or midway of Orchid Island (Taiwan) and Mavudis Island (Philippines). Basing on this, the general EEZ boundary should be within the middle of Bashi Channel.

2. Location of Incident:

The Taiwanese boat crew insist that they did not enter Philippine jurisdiction area, while the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) - Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) joint crew insist that they were inside their jurisdiction.

Philippines' Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Asis Perez points at the monitor the exact location where Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) intercepted 4 Taiwanese fishing vessels at 43 NM east of Balintang Island, Luzon Strait, during a news conference in Manila May 10, 2013.(caption and photo from Reuters)

On the Philippine side, the BFAR reported that 4 Taiwanese fishing boats were intercepted by BFAR boat 43nmi east of Balintan Island, well within the Philippine side of the EEZ boundary. Philippine news reports all point to 170nmi from Taiwan southernmost point.

An illustration with Chinese caption from News365 (China)(photo posted by McKoyzz@PDFF)

Take note that according to Taiwan's CGA, the Taiwanese control border is close to the northern-most island of Batanes group of islands rather than further north in the middle of the Bashi Channel.

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Foreign news sources like BBC reported the location as 170nmi from Taiwan, similar to most Philippine sources.

An illustration from AFP shows the incident happened at the Balintang Channel, or inside Philippine EEZ.

Judging from these compilation from Philippine, Taiwanese and 3rd country sources, it is generally accepted that the Taiwanese boats were indeed discovered well inside Philippine jurisdiction.

3. The Shooting Incident

Using a combination of Taiwan's CGA report and Philippine Coast Guard sources, it appears that 4 Taiwanese fishing boats were spotted by BFAR patrol boat MCS-3001 on May 9, 2013 at around 5:00AM. The boats were hailed and approached by MCS-3001 for boarding and inspection. But instead of stopping to be boarded, all 4 boats moved away towards Taiwan's direction.

A chase ensued for more than 4 hours, with the BFAR-PCG boat giving warnings to stop using alarms or sirens, and loudspeaker annoucements. The Philippine boat made several attempts to board one of the boats but while doing so other fishing boats attempt to ram the Philippine boat. They were able to avoid collision in all those instances. This chase went on until around 9:30AM when the BFAR-PCG boat made warning shots for them to stop, but the 4 fishing boats did not heed the warning and instead continue to move away.

Around 9:40AM, the Philippine boat decided to disable the machinery of one of the fishing boats, the Guang Ta Hsin 28, by shooting at its engine and machinery room. Several shots were made using its on-board machine gun, hitting the fishing boat in several areas. One of the bullets hit the neck of 65-year old Mr. Huang Shih-Cheng who was staying in the engine room of the fishing boat, killing him in the process.

The boats continued to press on until Taiwanese CGA vessels met them to escort back to Taiwan. During the entire chase, Taiwan CGA was already informed that they were being chased by Philippine law enforcement boat.

According to the son of the dead fisherman, they did not cross waters of Philippine jurisdiction, and that no warning shots were made by the Philippine group.

4. Taiwanese and Philippine Government Actions:

Taiwanese and Chinese media were quick to release news reports on the incident, initially accusing the Philippine Navy, while the Philippine side initially used these reports while awaiting for confirmation from the Philippine Government. The Philippine Navy later denied being involved, later on the Philippine Coast Guard admitted that they did indeed shot the Taiwanese fishing boat.

Taiwan later on released a 72-hour ultimatum demanding for a Philippine apology and action against the PCG-BFAR crew of MCS-3001, which ends at 12:00 midnight today. Philippine officials said they sympathize the death of Mr. Huang but no apology is expected to be given. President Aquino asked the Taiwanese government to calm on the incident while investigations are ongoing.

With the deadline of the ultimatum nearing, the Philippine government announced that they are looking for possible alternative markets for Philippine labor in case of a clampdown in Taiwan. Taiwan announced to hold military exercises at the "overlapping" EEZ as a show of strength, with strong words indicating that the Philippine Navy is more than a match for their naval capability.

There are no major reactions from other countries, with their common ally, the United States, not making any condemnation remarks against the Philippines.

By around 3:00PM of May 14, the Philippine government imposed a news blackout regarding the issue. There were also reports from Filipino workers in Taiwan of being physically hurt by Taiwanese citizens especially near port areas.

A note from one of the OFWs in Taiwan appealing for restraint and assistance. Left side of the note shows the instructions from employment agency to avoid public exposure.
(photo from Facebook)

5. MaxDefense Opinion on what the Philippines should do:

MaxDefense (MD) believes that all actions made by the Taiwanese are over-reactions only, and were made by their government due to mounting pressure from the political opposition and the citizenry. It would be bad for the political careers of Taiwanese officials to stay mum and do nothing. It would be worth noting that Taiwanese President Ma has been under pressure in the homefront due to domestic issues like housing, cost of living, and job security. An indecisive action on this issue will spell doom on his political career.MD believes that the Philippine government is aware and understands the Taiwanese government's actions, the situation of the ruling KMT party. But the Philippines' non-compliance to Taiwan's demands is a move that we at MD agrees. So far only President Aquino knows the reason of his decision on this issue other than what are obvious.As for the shooting, MD wonders - a more than 4-hour chase to reach Taiwan's control area at possibly high speed means that the Taiwanese are indeed deep inside Philippine waters. So the BFAR-PCG is indeed in the right place at the right time when they saw the Taiwanese flotilla.

The Philippines should not bow down to Taiwan's demands due to the following reasons:

a. If it believes that what the PCG-BFAR team did was necessary, then why agree to Taiwan? Although bigger than the fishing boats, ramming of the patrol boat while being hailed to halt is itself a show of disrespect to Philippine law enforcement and is a possible evidence of guilt on the Taiwanese part. Also, the Filipino patrol boat captain may have thought of his ship and crew's safety first above all, which is the right thing to do. Shooting the fishing boat's machinery is a way of stopping a runaway suspect, it just happened that somebody was in there who unfortunately died.

b. To maintain integrity its territorial jurisdiction. Apologizing to the Taiwanese will mean accepting that they are correct and our coast guard team was wrong. It also means agreeing that they were inside disputed waters instead of undisputed Philippine territorial waters. The Taiwanese can also start to dispute the sovereign rights of the Philippines in the Balabac Channel and the Batanes group of islands if the Philippines agree to apologize, and further claims of Taiwan to Batanes and the EEZ will strengthen in the process.

c. Philippine pride and prestige is at stake here. There were instances that South Korea, Japan, and Russia did not apologize to China when they shot Chinese fishing boats operating in their jurisdictions. Should the Philippines apologize, it will only make it appear weak and can be bullied by its neighbors and it is expected that Taiwan, China, and everyone else can poach again in Philippine waters in the future

d. The Philippines will lose some, but so is Taiwan. The Taiwanese labor market for the Philippines may be reduced and become less attractive, forcing many Filipinos to leave their jobs there to come back home. They might be jobless, but they can find work again either in the Philippines or in another country. In the mean time, Taiwan will lose cheap and english-proficient workers in the process, and this will affect their manufacturing industry.e. A change in political strategy when dealing with neighbors will disrupt the usual expected "bow-down" reply streak of the Philippine government. This would be a good start in imposing the Philippines' foreign policies as well to other countries. Maybe this would be the start of an "upgrade" of perception on the Philippine foreign relations scene.

Other points that can be learned from this incident for the Philippines:

1. The Philippines has to give utmost importance to territorial control and integrity, and strict enforcement of its laws and jurisdiction must become a part of its long term national strategy and policy.

2. The importance of supporting its armed forces and civilian maritime law enforcement agencies. The Philippine government must put national defense in its top priority, be given support and budget to modernize and up-arm. For its size, MD believes that the Philippine military is manpower-short and poorly equipped for its economic capacity and population.

3. The Philippine government must strive hard to make further reforms in its economic policies. It should be less dependent on OFW remittances and instead diversify its economy. This includes more in-country industry and jobs for its citizens to minimize the need to send workers to other countries like Taiwan.

4. At least as early as now, the Philippines can show to the world that it can stand on its own without the need to appease its neighbors to survive and continue. Bowing down to Taiwan and losing its pride now will not bring back the lost pride, but this issue will fade and the Philippines can save face by surviving and knowing its neighbors well.

6. Taiwan's Threat of Military Exercises near the Philippines' EEZThe recent threats of Taiwan to hold military exercises must be looked at by the Philippine government. Although it is not expected for the Taiwanese military to do something bolder than only having exercises, the Philippine government should not be lax and instead be alert for any further contingencies. This is where the lack of military capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows. In the case of South Korea and Japan, any military exercises made by China in disputed areas are met by deployments of naval and air units as a bold display of capability to resist any possible Chinese action. The Philippine Navy can only monitor with its antiquated equipment, and even if they bring all their assets on the border it will not make the Taiwanese think twice. As they even said earlier, only one of their 22 frigates can annihilate the entire Philippine Navy if shooting starts. That should concern the Philippine government as threats like that should be taken seriously.On the other hand, Taiwan should be wary of its threats and actions. They have forgotten that the Philippines is one of their few friends in the region against China. Although Taiwan-China relations are in all time high with the Chinese even cheering for the Taiwanese against the Philippines. But until the lines have been set and it continues to be under America's defense and security umbrella, the Philippines is its partner. The Americans are surprisingly silent on this situation, but they are expected to be already making their moves deep within the Taiwanese and Philippine governments. 7. Possible American-supplied arms against an American treaty-ally?Taiwan should also remember that the military assistance rendered by the United States to them is for them to defend from aggression from China. Using American military wares to hurt one of its treaty allies may have implications against Taiwan. Imagine Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, Kidd-class destroyers and F-16 and F-5 fighters being used against an American ally. Everyone is free to speculate the American reaction. The United States remains as Taiwan's single most trusted arms supplier, with the French reportedly abandoning them in supporting and maintaining the Mirage 2000 fighter planes and Lafayette-class frigates the Taiwanese bought from them.

Comments

it seems that their leaders are somewhat stuck with the notion that the philippines is still southeast asia's banana republic, and thus can easily be ordered what to do. they wholly forgot the fact that our economy is growing stronger by the day.

i can't wait to see their faces when our national basketball team destroys ( again!) their pussy-faced basketballers in the coming jones cup which will be held in taipei a few months from now hahaha! nice blog by the way...

KNOW you say "Let us wait for investigation to complete" you have already make a conclusion in this cheap article.is that a joke?is that an investigation simply before your computer screen ?you made the cheap conclusion just before writing this article ? funny.

The conclusion here is that Taiwan is over-reacting. If the Philippine Coast Guard was indeed right or wrong, the reaction coming from Taiwan is unreasonable as well. Investigation is not yet complete, yet your citizens and government would immediately want the Philippine government to apologize. Why not wait for the investigations to finish, besides your representatives will be or are present in these investigations. I did not say the Philippines was right, but Taiwan should not excessively push itself by using its political, military and economic superiority over the Philippines.

At above. The Coast guard never said it hit them, but it tried to RAM them. Two different things.

Brush on your English COMPREHENSION. English is not all grammar. It needs THOROUGH COMPREHENSION and most especially the ability to read BETWEEN the lines

Heck, you can't even decide how many bullet holes were there. I have seen figures 30,34,54,50,53,59. Even you cannot decide on the size of the Taiwanese fishing boat. How can you prove credibility when you yourselves cannot reconcile the "SUPPOSED" facts?

Whether you spread or not the accurate facts, it will only down to same conclusion that Taiwan is over-reacting, you asked for apology, our president gave it and you just unaccepted it. WTF? We symphatize with your loss, BUT SERIOUSLY WE SEE NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE FOR DEFENDING OUR TERRITORIAL SEA.

the incident happened in the sea and there is a captain to decide the safety of his crew when they are in danger.they might only be thinking of their survival in the middle of the sea that prompted the decision. the decision must have been either we or them? if you are in the middle of the sea and someone tried to bully you in your area and endangering your team while doing your job and maintaining your cool what could have been your reaction? do you think anyone caught in your territory illegally will freeze their arms and surrender? the common reaction would be to evade and destroy or paralyze the one after you so you can escape. for sure that is the rule of the sea for veteran illegal fishers to avoid the penalty and lot of inconviniences when caught. same thing that is the action of authority to paralyze the evader vessel so they can catch and stop them so killing is not an intention. if the evader tries to endanger you it is a different thing. i salute anyone who works hard in this kind of job to maintain the integrity of one's sovereignity. i could not just imagine how dangerous the task and yet they do it. one thing more the filipinos dont go rampaging and killing foreigners in the land when one of their kind is abused or exploited in other countries.

Regardless of whether the Taiwanese boat tried to ram the Coast guard ship (a move that makes little sense since the Taiwanese ship was smaller and had no weaponry), the fact that there were 50+ bullet holes made by at least 45 shots cannot be deemed as self defense. Especially since the majority of the shots were clearly taken from the side or from behind (which means the Coast guard kept firing at the boat even after the "threat" of being rammed over was gone). That is at the very least a military retaliation and, at worst, intent to kill. The argument made by the Philippines government that the killing was unintentional doesn't seem to have merits, as the entire Taiwanese boat was covered with bullet holes, with a good portion of them being concentrated at the captain's cabin. Perhaps there was no specific intent to kill, but the coast guard had to have expected that such a blast of shots would likely to kill someone. That is called a general intent to kill. What they said about aiming at the boat's engine to disable it is obviously a lie, as the entire boat is covered with bullet holes.

Whoever attacked on someone else's English should be ashamed of themselves.

Learn the truthTaiwanese fisher is NOTHING ILLEGAL-----------------------------------------------1. What is the definition of EEZ come from for Searoundus.org, UNCLOS?2. Why Ph. government AFRAID to release the incident video?3. Control border by Taiwan government is JUST A LINE for government protection to fishers, yes it is mainly based on the half distance of Taiwan and Ph. but it didn't mean we abandon the RIGHT to fish over the line.4. 43 NM east of Balintang Island is NOT in Ph.'s territory sea(<12 NM)

Way too much overreacting.Look at the picture, where are most of the shots? Mostly aiming the engine (rear/side). If the coast guard is shooting to kill, they would have aimed all of the shots to the wheelhouse where the people/captain would have been.

Plus, if the CG was chasing and shooting, most of the shots would have been on the back, but if you see, the shots are some on the front, some on the back and most on the side (and aiming below the deck). shots on the front would indicate the fishing vessel was at once head on to the shooters on the ship which could mean that it could have been trying to ram it. (and chickened out when they got shot at).

Face it, either you're blind, or you're deliberately overreacting and ignoring the facts.

I respect your comments and this is not an argument. I would like to make an emphasis sir that based on the "RULES OF ENGAGEMENT AT SEA" warning shots were given to the Taiwanese vessels and yet they are keep on escaping to avoid possible apprehension.

However, based again in ROE at sea, if the vessel keeps on moving and try to escape, the apprehending Authority needs to disable the engine that is why they fired the Taiwanese vessel. And as with your comment that she was fired from the midship section (middle portion of the vessel) up to aft section (end part of the vessel)is because on my opinion that there are types of vessel that the engines were placed either from the midship section or aft section of the vessel.

In connection with the 50+ bullets fired by the CG, the armaments they used is M-14 and M-16 ripples, that's the reason why because they need only to neutralized the vessel. if they want to destroy the vessel for sure they will used a high powered armaments like 50 caliber machine gun and for sure they will hit the vessel below the water line in order to sink the vessel.

i dint mean to make an arguments to you sir, it was just only my opinion. good afternoon.

I wonder if you really understand the "rules of engagement." Regardless of whether the location of the Taiwanese boat was within "Philippine-controlled" waters, as long as it was not within the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters of the Philippines, the coast guard had no right to open fire at a civilian boat or to conduct a hot pursue.

The alleged ramming attempt makes no sense, as the coast guard ship was 6 times larger. The fishing boat would've sunk itself had it rammed into the coast guard ship. Regardless, even if the ramming attempt was the truth, the coast guard was not allowed to fire and keep firing their machine guns at the boat once the immediate threat was neutralized. The fact that they kept firing at the fishing boat as it was retreating back to "Taiwan's side" of the region, was an obvious disregard for human life. Then, after the coast guard disabled the fishing boat, they just left it there for dead. They never bothered to check the status of the fishermen, whether someone could've been hurt, or call for rescue. As a result, one fisherman bled to death.

If you think the coast guard did nothing wrong here, there's something wrong with you.

Of course I do understand the “Rules of Engagement AT SEA” how about you? Do you? …. regardless of territorial dispute between the two countries the PCG use a PA system addressing the Taiwanese fisherman to stop, despite of that warning they continue to escape. As your claim that the PCG has no right to open fire in a civilian vessel, how will you arrest a hostile? As a maritime enforcer, warning shots were given to stop and yet continue to evade. The last resort on “Rules of Engagement AT SEA”, to neutralize the vessel the PCG needs to open fire to disable the engine.

On the other hand, you mentioned that the vessel was 6 times larger than the Taiwanese vessel, for your info, the BFAR vessel is only 30 meters. How do you know that the threat was neutralized and the PCG was kept on firing? Are you there?

Again to answer your last message, in “disregarding human life” it was an accident. If the Coast Guard want to slay all those persons in Taiwanese vessel, most probably the will not aim the aft portion of the vessel instead they will aim the bridge or the pilot house.

I told you that I don’t want to argue with you it’s only my opinion but if you want that’s fine with me.

Threat was neutralized when the PCG was no longer in danger of being rammed over. What other threats were there??? However you define the term "being hostile," the rule is clear that you CANNOT open fire on a civilian vessel unless it's self defense (i.e., your own life was in danger). This is why the PCG claimed that they opened fire because the fishing boat attempted to ram them over. Of course, there's no such evidence. What I'm saying is that even IF the ramming attempt was there, once the fishing boat turned away from you, the threat was neutralized. The PCG was no longer in a life-threatening situation. Therefore it was NOT allowed to use their machine guns to fire upon a civilian vessel that carried no weaponry of any kind.

Ever heard of the term "felony murder"? It means when you kill someone during a commitment of felony, even without a specific intent to kill, you can still be charged for murder. This is similar. The PCG was not allowed to open fire as explained above. When it did, and with the blast of rounds that it did, there's a reasonable expectation that you'd kill someone. Even if it was an accident, it was still a disregard for human life at a very minimum. In the United States, this would've been charged a murder.

ahaha taiwanese government is becoming fascist! dont they know that taiwanese organizers always like to invite the philippine basketball team in the jones cup because its presence generates large income for them? it's not the ph team's loss. but we completely understand. ph team winning over pussy-faced taiwan national team before basketball-crazy taiwanese fans is like adding insult to injury. anyway, there's still the fiba asia so the ph team still has another crack at humiliating taiwan's pussy-faced players.

totally agree..one taiwanese friend went on badmouthing us upon hearing the news...he didn't know what he was saying. I've talked to him, not mentioning about it, just keeping in touch. and from our conversation, he still seems to be convinced that we are at fault and that we are stupid for not giving an apology. excuse me. i didn't react and just told me to wait for further investigations. but from your perspective, i'm near convinced that we're actually not at fault. pfft, they just love to overreact.

Hi Mr. Severino, I have no issues on your request, but I would like to have a special request as well. As implied by the poster below you (sadly he's anonymous), could you include the deletion of Taiwanese media of the Batanes group of islands in their illustration maps as a concern worth highlighting? Batanes is definitely part of the Philippines but it appears that they are consciously removing it to justify their presence in Philippine waters. Please let me know if its possible. Thanks.

Howie, you might want to look at the other side of the story commented in YahooNews.Ph by User Doomsday : (http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippine-leader-apologises-taiwan-fisherman-death-085612442.html)

Hi I'm a Taiwanese. Thank you for your reasonable comments. I just would like to share with you some truth without other intentions.

Honestly, 96% of Taiwanese support the sanctions to Phillippines in a survey of Yahoo Taiwan. Taiwanese government is actually forced to be tough by the bottom-up outrage. Taiwnese fishermen had histories and long-term resentment with your PCG. "Taiwanese fishermen work hard catching fish for few money, Yet Filipinos don't have to catch fish. They catch Taiwanese for much much more easy money." Every year we can see this kind of complaints on our news.

And for this time, information from our side doesn't suggest any possibility of confrontational ramming. A little fishing boat with 4 unarmed fishermen dare to ram into a larger patrol ship with a dozen of riflemen and mechine gun is really nonsense. Where could they go if their boat got sunk too? They're in the middle of nowhere. A more reasonable scenario we believe is that the fishing boat tried to flee quickly so that your coastguards had to shoot their engine to stop them. No intention to kill people yes. However, the intention of your PCG usually is detaining boats, arresting Taiwanese, and asking for ransoms. This scenario happens too many times within decades.

Besides, the outrages quickly escalated after Taiwanese saw your spokeswoman having big smiles on her face while speaking on behalf of your government. Also your president's "One China Policy" also ignite another wave of intolerance. We can't accept any kind of apology while belittled as a local government of China. So far, we insist that the apology should be from your government instead of your people because the murderer is your government not your people. Moreover, because your president's comment of one china policy, we admitted ourselve as a local government of China if we accepted any apologies not officially from your government. Just as similar reason, we insist on the compensation from your government, not the donation from your people. A simple apology and some sincerity to solve the problem from your peresident from the very begining could have solved everything, honestly.

Many of your people might imagine that Taiwan is a minion of China that deliberately makes incidents to nibble up your territories. That is so not true.

Hi Mr. Taiwanese (sorry I don't know how to call you, you didn't drop your name). Thank you for your comment. It would be worth noting that ramming by unarmed fishing boats against armed large coast guard vessels is rampant in the region. China does it against South Korean or Japanese law enforcement ships. I believe Taiwanese fishing boats do it to. So it is not entirely impossible for the Taiwanese boats to ram the Philippine BFAR-PCG boat. But I won't conclude on that, since we exactly don't know if there was any ramming attempt or actual contact between the two boats.

MaxDefense understands that Taiwan's government is facing a dilemma from its citizens because of internal issues, but it would also be irresponsible for your government to impose sanctions and threaten the Philippines without concluding the investigations. I believe the Philippine government will apologize and castigate the perpetrators if proven guilty. But now is too early for any apologies. Instead, Taiwan should help in the investigations and not cover the suspect fishermen if they need to be involved for questioning as well.

Yes, Taiwan is not a minion of communist China. But recent policies of your government, your closeness to the Chinese Communist government (presently at its highest ever in your history) is already worrying. Filipinos are expecting Taiwan to be in the forefront in the fight against China's aggression but now China and Taiwan are working together against the Philippines other South China Sea claimants. Now you know why it appears that Taiwan is China's minion nowadays?

As for the ransoms, that is a different issue but the Taiwanese public cannot use that as a reason to be angry. Taiwanese fishermen should not be afraid to fish if they are in their own control line. But it appears they are not, so its only normal for the Philippine authorities to hail them and arrest if necessary. Your countrymen should have not run away, instead face the music. There was no intention to kill (murder) your citizen, as you agreed, the intention was to damage the machinery/engine of the fishing boat to make it stop.

Mr. Taiwanese, if you really think that your fishermen are "NOT" violating "ANY" countries territories? how would you explain the report that "SOME" of your fisherman are caught near JAPAN's islands and got apprehended by the japanese? why not "OVER REACT"? on that issue as well or that just proves that your fisherman really have a habit on breaking on someone's backyard?

The Philippine government knows very well the controversy between Taiwan and China regarding the "One China" issue. They raised that to muddle the real issue at hand, by trying to get China fight with Taiwan on sovereignty claims so they wouldn't have to respond to Taiwan's demands. It was a cowardly tactic. Good thing China didn't take the bait.

The law on international waters is clear: a country's territorial waters extend at most 12 nautical miles from its coastline. The Taiwanese boat was within the overlapping region of exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which is defined as 200 nautical miles from a nation's coastline. While it's true that the boat was within the EEZ of the Philippines, it is also true that it was within Taiwan's EEZ. In this overlapping region neither country has the right of hot pursue, not to mention using excessive force like the machine guns. Even within a nation's 12 nautical-mile territorial waters, a coast guard cannot use deadly weapons unless the adversary poses immediate and deadly threat.

This is where the self defense claim comes in (although it was used in the wrong region of waters). The Philippine coast guard claimed that they fired based on self defense, because the Taiwanese boat was trying to ram them over. So far there's no evidence to support the claim. But even if that were true, the coast guard must cease fire once the immediate and deadly threat was gone. That obviously was not the case, as the Taiwanese boat has bullet holes throughout the entire ship, with the majority of the shots landed on its side and back, and a good portion of them being concentrated at the boat captain's cabin. That can only happen if the coast guard was firing at the boat from the side and from behind (i.e., in pursuit). This also defeats the argument that the coast guard was simply trying to disable the ship by targeting its engines. Whether the guards had a specific intent to kill the 4 boatmen is unknown, but there was definitely a general intent to kill as one can reasonably expect that someone might be killed when one fires 45+ shots at the entirety of the boat which resulted in 50+ bullet holes.

The ransoms are relevant because they could be a/the reason for the heavy firing. It would explain why the coast guard kept firing at the Taiwanese boat while chasing them out of the "Philippine-controlled" waters. They may be trying to stop the boat from escaping to the "Taiwanese side" so the boat could be detained and claimed for ransom. I really could not think of another reason why so many shots had to be fired upon the fishing boat, and from behind. This is why the Taiwanese people are angry regarding the ransom practice. In trying to collect bail money, the Philippine coast guard may have disregarded human life. If anyone has another theory why the Taiwanese boat was fired upon from behind, and with so many shots, perhaps you can enlighten me and the Taiwanese people.

Do you still think the Taiwanese are overreacting? It's difficult for an entire nation to overreact, despite media influence.

One thing I noticed from the images of Taiwanese media is that they tend to "erase" or blur Batanes -- a political entity of the country (in which it is a province and the people there are citizens of the Philippines). I suspect this is to create the impression of the area being "disputed". So they have to erase any jurisdiction of ours in the islands in the area

Do you think the area fell also into our territorial waters? I see you are a retired Navy reserve so I think you may be able to answer it.

I have read that the territorial waters and EEZ are measured from the BASELINE, now the question is, how far was the incident actually from the BASELINE? I have been trying to estimate pictures and it seems that it fell inside our territorial waters, not just EEZ. I know it happened 43 NM from Balintan island but how far was it from the Baseline?

43nmi appears to be outside the territorial waters, but inside the EEZ. The baseline is just somewhere along the coast of Balintan island. What Taiwan was saying is that the EEZ in that portion is overlapping with theirs and is disputed so until it is not settled, they can fish there anytime. I think this is wrong.

ahaha taiwanese government is becoming more and more fascist! dont they know that taiwanese organizers always like to invite the philippine basketball team in the jones cup because its presence generates large income for them? it's not the ph team's loss. but we completely understand. ph team winning over pussy-faced taiwan national team before basketball-crazy taiwanese fans is like adding insult to injury. anyway, there's still the fiba asia so the ph team still has another crack at humiliating taiwan's pussy-faced players.

" The Americans are surprisingly silent on this situation, but they are expected to be already making their moves deep within the Taiwanese and Philippine governments. "Indeed! they sent Vin Diesel & Sarah Jessica Parker.

The Americans just have too much on their plate today. But it is sad that Taiwan, a non-UN nation would act so proud unless of course that actually Big daddy China (mainland) is using them to get to the Philippines. Let us see how this escalates.

Thank you for this information. I've seen several videos of Taiwan outrage towards the issue (even burning a Philippine flag) through our local news. Filipinos are Talking now through networking sites, emotional but with a little info. about the topic. After reading this (and the follow up soon). I am confident that we are on the right side. I'm looking forward for tomorrow's news about the issue, additional details and our Goverment's statement. Hope our President will face this strongly and be the leader we are hoping him to be. Thank you again for this blog. -JuanPinoy

Hi Chilion Wang, thanks for the link for that interesting map. But in the map I have noticed, why are the Batanes Islands not given its own EEZ? They shouldnbe subject to their own EEZ, meaning if we follow Taiwan's interpretation, Philippine fishing boats can also fish very close to Orchid Island and Taiwan mainland (which I dont't think Taiwan would agree with). The problem is the interpretation of the overlap since there is no agreement yet between Taiwan and the Philippines on how where to cut the lines. Im not really sure if Taiwan is subject to adhere to UNCLOS since it is a non-signatory government. If ever this issue has settled or die down, it is best for both countries to agree to have a clear division.

I rechecked just now. The Philippines' northernmost inhabited island, the Mavudis Island, is applicable to be given its own EEZ. If we follow 200nmi EEZ prescription by the UNCLOS, it means the overlapping of EEZ goes until the Taiwanese city of Nanao on its eastern seaboard, outside Penghu island, and outside the territorial waters of Taiwan off Fangshan, Fangliao, and almost half your western seaboard and your entire soithern seaboard. From Orchid Island, 200nmi is until outside the territorial waters off Cagayan and Ilocos Norte provinces just outside Camiguin. Will Taiwan agree of Philippine fishing boats to fish just virtually everywhere outside Taiwan's 12nmi territorial waters?

I would like to point out that.Since our governments have no an agreement for the overlapped EEZ. I don't agree with Philippine side's location explanation.In my opinion, this fishing boat is inside the Taiwan-Philippine disputed area. And the location is more close to Philippine than Taiwan.

I agree that our government needs an agreement to be both coast guard's SOP to avoid similar incident.

And please read this article. This is about international law. Your article didn't mention the law PGCs disobey.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/781940.shtml#.UZRz76Ihqlb

the content below is from above link"According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal countries have the right of hot pursuit in their territorial waters. It grants coastal states the right to pursue and arrest ships escaping to international waters.

According to the Article 111 of the UNCLOS, "the hot pursuit of a foreign ship may be undertaken when the competent authorities of the coastal state have good reason to believe that the ship has violated the laws and regulations of that state. Such pursuit must be commenced when the foreign ship or one of its boats is within the internal waters, the archipelagic waters, the territorial sea or the contiguous zone of the pursuing state, and may only be continued outside the territorial sea or the contiguous zone if the pursuit has not been interrupted."

As a nod to the territorial principle, "the right of hot pursuit ceases as soon as the ship pursued enters the territorial sea of its own state or of a third state."

Hot pursuit is the most powerful right that international law grants to coastal countries over illegal operations of foreign ships in their waters.

However, the recent incident took place at 20 degrees north latitude and 123 degrees east longitude. It's not in the territorial waters of the Philippines, but in the overlapping region of exclusive economic zones.

The Philippines are not qualified to exert the right of hot pursuit in the region.

Even it could, the hot pursuit right is not applied to attacks by heavy weapons like the machine gun used in the latest case."

Chilian, yes the events happened inside Philippine EEZ. THe problem with the so-called "overlap" in EEZ is that there is no agreement, so the Philippines has legal jurisdiction on that area since Taiwan is not a UN member nor a signatory of UNCLOS. The absence of an agreement strengthens the Philippine side since only Taiwan claims it is disputed while it clearly shows that the Philippines is following UNCLOS. With regards to the hot pursuit issue, it may be applicable to the Philippines as a UNCLOS signatory, but I'm not sure if Taiwan can use such ruling since, as I said many times, Taiwan is not bounded by such as a non-signatory.

With your usage of communist Chinese sources, it only shows one thing, that Taiwan is clearly leaning towards communist China now instead of your usual stand as a defender of democracy together with the Philippines in this part of the world. As an article in another website say, Taiwan is becoming an unworthy US ally. Let's see what happens if Taiwan continue to escalate the issue by military pressure using American weapons on an American treaty-ally.

I don't like to refer to China information source.But Taiwan has only a few English information source. And no one mentions the law concern.That's why I need to refer to the China's information source.

However,I am very disappointed.You didn't point out any incorrect about that China's information source.

Did you know Taiwan have similar issues with Japan. And Last month Japan cut a deal with Taiwan to be the solution for those issues. Even Japan has the same "One-China" policy. Japan still support Taiwan to be a country.

But you think that Taiwan is not a country so that Taiwan have no right to apply to international law in this incident. That is you and your government's point. For your interests, you know we'll not to seek China's support also we can't get UN's support due to no signatory.

So your government could use Taiwan's legal status to get your interests. right? You know China can stand for Taiwan in UNCLOS. And that is China's wish. But we'll not do that.

That's why you didn't take it seriously about PCG's possible critical violation the Law of Sea.

If Philippine can do the same thing as Japan, we both get benefits form this area with lower cost.

No, Philippines is respecting Taiwan EEZ, even when they don't legally have one, because our EEZ shows it stops midway on the Bashi Channel. (Taiwan even shows a square fence on our northernmost island then claims everything else to the sides)

Also it is known that China has a vastly different interpretation of UNCLOS as pointed in their nine dash claim.

Our coastguard was right in the use of self defense when they are in danger because the taiwanese ship tried to ram their vessel.

As for this incident, its just one big push to have Philippines ink a fishing agreement with Taiwan to allow their fishermen inside Philippine waters, which I as a Filipino citizen will not stand for.

Mr. Yang, you and your president is telling ph to be responsible in international community for not adhering to unclos that the worst we can do is hot pursuit in situation such as this. They did follow that! However they had to resort to using violence because your fishermen triggered them, and that's you and the whole bunch of close minded people can't acknowledge. You only listen to one side of the story.

And we don't actually use your legal status for our own interest. In fact had you become unclos signatory, the argument that the incident happened in disputed area is void. Because chances are tw and ph would have agreed that the area is not part of the overlapping eez, there are even islands that are still politically part of ph that are nearer to tw.

There might be reasons why the Philippines and Taiwan has not made any agreement on the overlapping EEZ issue. From my understanding, it is because Taiwan's request on the EEZ boundary is not acceptable to the Philippine side. Just lool at the maps you provided earlier. How come Batanes group of islands was not made as the reference point for starting the EEZ measurement when the northernmost island, according to UNCLOS, is eligible to have its EEZ. So the boundary now appears closer to the Philippines than to Taiwan. For Filipinos that would be unacceptable! The boundary of EEZ should be somewhere in the middle of the Bashi Channel, not like the one you just presented.

hello chillion, we could appreciate it if you can show a map of how Taiwan set its EEZ. since your country is not a member of UN, it's hard for us to find and to believe your claim whether the area of incident is in overlapping eez of ph and tw. your govt, nedia, and people keep on claiming that the area is indeed in the overlapping eez, when by UNCLOS...it JUST within ph eez. can you show us any mapping done by TW and not by these fake chinese sources?

yes japan did sign an agreement with taiwan but did you know that taiwan fishing vessels already violated the agreement? its in the news that japan apprehended taiwanese fishing votes and it was very fortunate no one was harmed.

also, it seems to me that the hidden agenda of taiwan's president is pressuring manila to sign a fishing agreement.

why in the world would we sign a fishing agreement with you? so that it will give to the right to poach on our waters? we don't poach on yours became we havent really fully utilized our resources. what will we gain from that?

for me it is very unfortunate for the fisherman who died because taiwan's president is just using his death to move forward his agenda.

he asked for an apology and when he got it he rejected it. we sent our man again, he didnt even meet with him or read the new draft. instead he went ahead with his naval drills that the filipino people don't care about. most of my friends sympathies is that do the drill and it won't matter cause we don't poach on your waters.

i have to point if out again, if there was no manipulation from your media, why is it that almost all of your maps erase batanes and babuyan islands? you don't even question it. some filipinos even question if the ramming is even true. we don't eat all the BS the government and our media is feeding us.

if you wanted the truth all along, why is your governmnet pressuring us to apologize and can't even wait for the investigation?

Did you know that the first "apology" wasn't an apology? The man said that the Philippines regret the occurrence of the incident. Regret!! That's not an apology. In fact, it was so far off the first letter the Taiwanese government received from the Philippine government. There were a total of 4 different versions coming from the Philippines. The second guy said he apologized to the family of the deceased, but that the apology was personal and did not come from the Philippine government or its President. So there was no point for the Taiwanese officials to meet with him.

The apology sought by the Taiwanese government and its people has to do with the reckless shooting and killing of the fisherman. That is obvious and there is no need to wait for any investigation. The purpose of the investigation is for finding out the circumstances of the killing.

Poaching is indeed a concern, which is the reason why an agreement between the countries would be beneficial. What you said about the Philippines rejecting the Taiwanese proposal is false. The truth is the Philippine government refused to even start a negotiation. The Philippines don't want to talk because its coast guards have been arresting and detaining Taiwanese fishermen and their ships for ransom, and it's very profitable.

No other country uses deadly force in such a situation. You're not allowed to use deadly force on a civilian vessel with no weapons unless it's self defense. The Japanese use pressurized water guns and so do Taiwanese coast guards and other civilized countries.

I really doubt your "battle ship" would be much of a threat. You can't really do nothing without your big brother China or should I say your main land. Taiwan is not yet an independent country due to China enforcing One-china policy.

It was the Taiwanese who were cowards. Your fishermen were caught fishing in PHL waters. They quickly escaped to avoid being arrested. In that case, your fishermen are like petty criminals who scarper at the sight of policemen.

Do not think the people of Taiwan overreactWe are just on the Philippine government's frivolous, perfunctory, lying the local ruffians behavior dissatisfied,They are extremely arrogant and do not have the shot of humanitarian consciousness, leading to such an event.

There is an old saying: leading by example.This refers to people how to do things is in its upper position, the next bit will be scrambling to imitate,It must be said that the Philippines this country gives us the feeling is,The above corruption, corruption, incompetence, arrogance,Countries, organizations, people have also competitive imitation,The difference of character ..."

The Philippines government is lying.(1) They said the Taiwanese fishing boat tried to collide their coast guard's boat. It is LOGICALLY impossible because the fishing boat is unarmed and has a slower speed than the coast guard's. Also, the investigation found that there are no marks due to collision on the fishing boat.(2) The coast guard of Philippine said they just wanted to warning. However, there are more the 50 bullet holes on all over the fishing boat. Also the fishing boat is chased for more than one hour, which showed that the coast guard was trying to kill Taiwanese fishmen rather than warning them.(3) Every country can claim 200 nautical miles for its EEZ. If some counties' EEZs overlay to each other, they need to negotiate and make an treatment. However, the last few decades, the Philippines government refuse to negotiate with Taiwan. Thus, in this incident, both of Taiwan and the Philippines have the right to claim the position is in their own territory, which makes to dispute it happened in whose EEZ is pointless.(4) The Philippines coast guards claimed that they have the video information of incident. However, they are not willing to announce it publicly.

ALL WE WANT IS THE TRUTH!! Let the Philippines government come out and say the truth to the public.

Hi. As I said in my earlier replies to your fellow Taiwanese:1. There might not be any actual ramming between the fishing boat and patrol boat. This is still being investigated. But it is not impossible for the small fishing boat to ram the small patrol boats. China has done that. Taiwanese and other country's fishermen can also do that if they want to. A boat does not need to be armed for it to resist arrest and ram any boat. You can see youtube for some examples.2. The shooting itself was not a warning. It was an attempt to destroy/damage the engine of the fishing boat. Several warnings were already made before the actual shooting. This includes sirens, light, loudspeaker announcement, hand gestures, and warning shots. There was no intention to kill the fishermen, if they did then everyone should have already died and your fishing boat already sunk.3. The Philippines did not refuse to negotiate. But your country is a special case since Taiwan is not a UN member and is not a signatory of the UNCLOS. Also, the northernmost tip of the Philippines should have a 200nmi EEZ as well. So if the overlap is to be followed, then we can claim and fish in your entire southern seaboard, and more than half of your country's eastern and western seaboards. I don't think Taiwan will agree on that.4. If a video is present, it will be used for the investigation. Your investigation team will be included in when this starts, and they can verify the video. The Philippine government is not escalating the situation so the video will be only shown to the public when the time is right.

The truth will come out after the investigation. Let it finish first before handing down your verdict. No apology, no compensation until a judgement is made.

Via Google translate:"Taiwan dead people, then the Philippines from start to finish in the play dead, there is no sincere apology, no compensation, no real as all try to fool Taiwan, so Taiwan exercise is normal, originally in respectshow military power, so that the neighboring countries will not continue to believe that Taiwan does not say anything, bullied stupid."

Your government yesterday said,, there is a positive agreement on both sides.. Then after few hours they were backpedaling, your president need his trust rating to climb from 13%,,, and he thinks that this is the best way... All of you are fed with your bias media....

The way the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) described the May 9 shooting of Taiwanese fishermen off the coast of Bantayan island was like telling a scene out of an action movie: a government vessel precariously dodging two fishing boats that tried to sink the law enforcer's ship as they engaged the bad guys in a high seas chase.

A three-page, incident report of the PCG that was obtained by the Manila Bulletin from a PCG insider showed how the Taiwanese fishermen violently and dangerously tried to evade their arrest after they were caught poaching at the sea located some 39 nautical miles off Bantayan Island.

The report, which was corroborated by a video on the maritime incident in Balintang Channel last May 9 that resulted to the death of a 65-year-old Taiwanese fisherman, was among the documents submitted by the PCG to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) since the bureau commenced its investigation on Wednesday.

“One of the Taiwanese vessel maneuvered to ramp our starboard bow. This unit executed reverse [gear] to avoid collision,” said the PCG report.

Based on the report, the MCS-3001, a 35-meter vessel jointly manned by the Coast Guard and personnel from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), set sail in the northern part of Batanes last May 8, 2013, to conduct seaborne patrol and monitoring control and surveillance against illegal fishing.

The following day, the PCG-BFAR spotted several radio beacon with two floating buoy markers some 39 nautical miles, east of Balintang Islands. They suspected that the buoys were long lines of Taiwanese fishing vessels. Soon after spotting the buoys, the PCG-BFAR was able to find the location of the Taiwanese fishing boats.

They claimed that the Taiwanese fishermen had resisted to stop from their tracks while local sea authorities repeatedly fired warning shots in mid-air and blared their vessel's horn at the foreigners.

“While on meeting situation, this unit then sounded warning through PA system and blow horn for the Taiwanese fishing vessel to stop for the conduct of fishing.. [The PCG] fired warning shots to alert the fishing vessel until the fishing vessel stopped and one of the crew of the fishing vesseel went outside,” the PCG said.

But when the MCS-3001 vessel of PCG-BFAR was almost alongside of one of the fishing boat named Guang Ta Hsin-28, the PCG claimed that the engine of the Taiwanese vessel whirred to life, and the boat manuevered backward before speeding forward and it almost collided with the government ship's stern.

The patient Philippine authorities fired another round of warning shots but the Taiwanese vessel resisted to stop and engaged the PCG-BFAR in a high-speed sea chase. As a result, the commanding officer of the MCS-3001 ordered to open fire at Guang Ta Hsin-28 to disable its engine but accidentally killed Taiwanese fisherman named Hung Shih-cheng.

“To stop the fishing vessel, this unit announced to fire for effects the engine side section of said Taiwanese fishing vessel to immobilize her [boat] and stop her [boat] engine,” the report said.

While chasing after Guang Ta Hsin, the PCG-BFAR spotted at least two, new unidentified boats - one white and one gray – and this prompt them to disengage from their chase and leave as they were already outnumbered.

I would like to know that what is the shooting SOP of the PCG.In this news, it said when Guang Ta Hsin-28 tried to escape, the boat almost collided the government ship's stern. But Guang Ta Hsin-28 didn't intend to ram the government ship, right? PCG shoot the boat not because Guang Ta Hsin-28 tried to attack PCG.They shoot to try to stop it? I don't know why it's necessary to get the risk to shoot someone to death only for stopping a possible thief. I don't know your PCGs SOP. Please help to show your PCG's SOP for opening fire in the situations.

Chillion Yang has point. The commanding officer of the MCS-3001 ordered to open fire as the Taiwan vessel was running away. This is considered excessive use of force. Police officers for example are not allowed to shoot suspects as they are running away even if the police observed them committing a crime. They are only allowed to open fire when lethal intent is shown and there is imminent danger to life. If they had opened fire during the alleged ramming incident then they can claim self defense. There would be bullet holes at the front of the Guang Ta Hsin-28 as it approached and/or bullet holes at the side as it veered away to verify their claim. But even the statement of the PCG says that they opened fire as it was running away because it ignored warnings to stop. There is really no grounds for the claim of self defense. It looks more like a case of a hot headed commanding officer who lost his temper at almost being rammed and then being ignored and decided to use lethal force to stop them from escaping.The Philippines is not currently in a state of war, but even if we were at war, firing on an unarmed civilian ship would be seen as a war crime. It would be another issue if it was armed naval ship that fired first.Hopefully the videos that the PCG took of the incident will be released soon and we can then all see clearly what actually happened, and if excessive force was indeed used, then the commanding officer will have to answer for it.We should all be civilized enough to resolve these territorial disputes through protests and dialogue rather than poaching or even worse, through the barrel of a loaded gun.

Chillian, if you read the PCG log that I posted from Manila Bulletin, it says that the PCG boat already made warnings to stop. Warning shots were also made several times. Your fishermen not only resisted arrest and tried to run away but they also planned to ploy the PCG boat by stopping then starting to run when a boarding attempt was being made. There is already an intention on your fishermen's part to escape whatever happens. They are brave not to heed warning shots. The PCG boat was operating alone, how do you think you can stop 4 run-away fishing boats, could you share your thought on how you would do it if you were the patrol boat captain, if its ok with you.

Actually I think what Chillian was asking about as the SOP of the Philippine Coast Guard is their "Rules of Engagement" for such incidents.Much like the UN Peacekeepers, all peacekeeper troops are required to strictly follow a Rule of Engagement for the areas they are stationed. For example during the atrocities in Bosnia, UN Peacekeepers stationed there were allowed to shoot a person if they tried to throw a grenade at them, however they were forbidden from firing if the person had already thrown the grenade and was already running away. With rising tensions over territorial fishing grounds I think our Government should have formulated "Rules of Engagement" for our armed forces which could help to prevent tragic diplomatic fiascos like this one. If our Government did not do such a thing, then that is just another example of lack of foresight, and someone paid for it with their life... In such a case one only has to be reminded of our SWAT team's inability to properly handle the Hong Kong hostages in the Manila bus hostage taking and the subsequent loss of life from that incident and the jokes-SWAT-Sorry Wala Akong Training...

Yes. I would like to ask about the "Rules of Engagement" of PCG. And I like to check if this "Rules of Engagement" violates the international law. If it compliances the international law, the PCG will not shoot an unarmed fishing boat when she ran away and no intention to threaten PCG.

In the real world, the same logic exists.

Ex: A suspect possibly stolen something (not made sure yet) and drive a car to run away when police try to arrest him.If he has no any weapon , police can not shoot the car only for stopping him. Coz shooting is highly risky to make him wounded or died.

Police can shoot if there's any signal shows the suspect has weapon. or intend to attack. It doesn't mean that a police can run after this suspect for couple hours and shoot over 50 bullets only for stopping him. Especially, the suspect is a foreigner.

Actually, we have the same issues with China. Chinese fishing boats often poaches in our EEZ. But our CG always try to do their job and not hurt Chinese fishermen or damage their fishing boat. If our CG made hurt or damage, our government will apologize and compensate. That's why we're so angry to your government intentional ignorance after a fisherman died.

At anonymous, as you have said and i quote "They are only allowed to open fire when lethal intent is shown and there is imminent danger to life." They tried to ram the PCG boat, therefore endangering the life of the crew of the PCG. Don't tell me it's not self defense? get it?

Instead of reacting angrily why don't we all just wait for the full results of the investigation to come out and also refrain from putting too much belief in the posturing of our politicians? These people just want our approval and they are using this incident as a way to bolster further support for themselves...

Hi Max, can I have your permission to share this? I like the informative format and the exchanges of views here(except the basketball topic =) ). I hope all will be resolved fairly and justifiable for both country's sake.

Taiwan is acting in an uncivilized manner encouraging its citizens to to not even sell food to Filipinos there. YOu may be an old culture but you are far from being civilized.

What if we did that to your people here? You are lucky we are a friendly people. And yes, more civil. YOur President is clearly doing this just to raise his pathetic 13% approval rating. What a scoundrel! Was he one of those people in your congress before who joined fist fights before? Ah well... It is expected from a barbarian.

Dont worry men if the government ban sending laborers to your country and look for other country. The Philippine are not the only one affected. Your manufacturing base economy relying on cheap and english speaking labors will be greatly affected. C'mon admit it or not it will hurt you in the long run. Mat i ask you are you a country or even a sovereign state to over react and demand too much? Nope! therefore stop acting like a kid!

Ok, not all Taiwanese approve of the not selling food to the Pinoys there.

Regarding the workers, not only Filipinos go there, Malaysians and Indonesians also and apparently they already know how to speak Mandarin, they also do it for the same amount, gets?Basically why Taiwan is so brave.

Besides, we are NOT a country of laborers. I do not and will not believe that.

And yes, I am Taiwanese-Filipino. I do understand why their reaction is like that.In Taiwan, no matter how petty something is they resolve it immediately, IMMEDIATELY.As for our country, it's sad but we still have time to procrastinate no matter how urgent the matter is. You know it's true even if you don not admit it.

Besides, we are more of a kid. A little insult from a celebrity and she's banned from entering our country again. A line from a TV show, given that it is insulting, we turn it into a big issue ask for an apology, hello, think again...

I think we should look at the mirror first before saying that Taiwan is overreacting.

A lot of Filipinos in general only knows OUR side of the story what about Taiwan's side of the story?

Besides, all the evidence is already there 72 hours is more than ample to resolve it, don't you think?

Ur media is feeding u with wrong infos. Our PCG did not said the boat hit the BFAR. I even wonder why some videos on youtube made by the taiwanese and local news here in Taiwan, our PCG lied because they found no “rammed“marks on the boat, why wasting their time searching for marks if uor PCG didnt said they was rammed by ur fishing boat...? Another thing, ur media said, i know coz my employer told me so, that your government freeze hiring of filipino workers, yet our Dep. of Labor and Employment said no freeze hiring of workers, they only extend the days ofvisa‘s processing.. Taiwanese ordinary people are easy to fool.. my employer didnt know how to speak, read or understand english. Even some young sales clerk in stores or crew in a food chain, taiwanese are poor when it comes to communicating with foreign english speaking people. what i am saying here is, ur government and ur media can easily fool and manipulate their people. This case is very sensitive, a small wrong info can cause more damage... and now, the damage of your government and media with their small wrong info are my fellow ofws beaten and sent to the hospital by ur fuelled angry fellows...

To all Taiwanese reading this blog: Always keep in mind that YOU ARE NOT even a Country, or sovereign state to react too much on this issue. It is not even a matter of national security because the coast did not enter your territorial water. Your fishermen who entered and try to escape our maritime law enforcers with in our Exclusive Economic Zone. The President send his apology, if you cant accept it. FINE! Your arrogance and ignorance that shows on your excessive action are monitored by United Nations and the free world. They observed your excessive and brutal action. Now between Philippines and Taiwan who will look rowdy. I know you are very careful with regards with your international image. But you are tainting it with your overreaction. And for you President Ma Ying-jeou. Grow up!

Taiwanese and even Chinese fishing boats have been looting into Philippine territory for years. And even locals from Sta.Ana Cagayan and nearby islands attested me way back the end of March 2012 during the long Philippine holiday due to observance of the holy week when they showed me a big fishing vessel apparently from Taiwan well within the Philippine territory passed Batanes and Babuyanes group.. about just a measly 17-km off-shore Sta.Ana Cagayan. They have told me that these intruders do this usually when PCG is not in patrol. I am inclined to believe that the Taiwanese illegal poachers where at the wrong place at the wrong time when the Philippine Coast Guard is right on at their noses.

Taiwanese people are free to enter our territory but make sure you do not trample our sovereignty.

Great! I finally found an informative article about this issue. Good research and analysis. You obviously know what you're talking about. I share most of the viewpoints that you laid out here, very rational. The truth will come out in good time, I have no doubt.

Thanks for writing this blog. Kudos, Max!

Maria Makabayan

P.S. Regrettably, I read several comments above that are shallow, emotional, and plainly reflect lack of comprehension. Reacting without understanding, eh? Let's pray for peace as well as enlightenment for everyone in the dark.

I really can't help not being rational and objective. I have become emotional about this issue. I think some Taiwanese are reacting harshly - up to the point of burning our national flag, burning Pres. Aquino's portrait, threatening our OFWs working there. Even the sanctions given by the Taiwanese government I felt, are unreasonable.

The Manila grandstand incident where a tourist bus, boarded with HK tourists was hostaged... and the tourists shot dead is even graver. Obviously the Philippines is at fault then. The HK people did protest but with civility. They did not resort to flag burning or something that would step down on us as a nation.

Now, I felt we have been treated lower than terrorists... It is unacceptable. I understand if its only protest but disrespect... It is way out of line.

I have traveled to Taiwan four times already, for tourism purposes. The thing I like most about the Taiwan are the people. There are difficult times that I encountered and every Taiwanese people I asked helped from are willing to help out. I cannot speak Mandarin fluently and when people there talk to me they are very patient to understand me. I praise Taiwan to many of my friends and encourage them to travel there as an alternate place other than HK or Singapore. My friends mock me now... Do you still want to go after all of this? Is that what you call "kind" people?

For me I find it irreconcilable, the people I encounter there and the people I read on the news are different. Somehow it breaks my heart...

I know this will be resolved soon so for the meantime treat everyone as civil as possible. I love reading this blog. Very intelligent and informative.

Your article is well documented and researched, however unfortunately I can not entirely agree to the conclusions you reached.Firing on an unarmed fishing vessel while it is running away can indeed be frowned upon and be seen as the use of excessive force. Even police are not allowed to shoot suspects while they are running away and are only allowed to discharge their firearms in the face of lethal force or intent to kill.Claims of the coast guard that the fishing vessels tried to ram their ship may be true and may bolsetr their claims of self defense, however in your own words "A chase ensued for more than 4 hours, with the BFAR-PCG boat giving warnings to stop using alarms or sirens, and loudspeaker annoucements. The Philippine boat made several attempts to board one of the boats but while doing so other fishing boats attempt to ram the Philippine boat. They were able to avoid collision in all those instances. This chase went on until around 9:30AM when the BFAR-PCG boat made warning shots for them to stop, but the 4 fishing boats did not heed the warning and instead continue to move away.

Around 9:40AM, the Philippine boat decided to disable the machinery of one of the fishing boats, the Guang Ta Hsin 28, by shooting at its engine and machinery room. Several shots were made using its on-board machine gun, hitting the fishing boat in several areas. One of the bullets hit the neck of 65-year old Mr. Huang Shih-Cheng who was staying in the engine room of the fishing boat, killing him in the process."Please note it says that the coast guard fired warning shots BUT THEY CONTINUED MOVING AWAY, this was at 9:30. It was at 9:40 that the order was issued to fire and attempt to disable the engine of one of the boats. No further mention of the fishing boat attempting to ram the coast guard was made.Conclusion-the coast guard fired upon an unarmed ship while it was running away, not in self defense. A policeman would be facing charges of excessive force in such a case.Now this issue aside, I find it amazing that in this day and age of portable video devices and cellphone cameras, the Philippine coast guard does not video and document its encounters with these fishing vessels from other countries and then raise these problems in an international forum and call for finalizing our territorial claims through diplomacy. A video of these fishing vessels trying to ram our coast guard and then our cost guard responding appropriately would have more clout on the international stage than all this noisy posturing of politicians. Heck we would even be able to calm down some of the protests in Taiwan if we have video evidence to prove the aggressive actions of the Taiwanese vessels.At present, the Taiwanese has a dead fisherman from an unarmed civilian vessel with bullet holes to show their side of the story, while the Philippines only has the word of the Coast Guard crew claiming self defense.With that said, hopefully even more factual data can released to show the actions of both sides of this altercation so that a clearer picture can be seen. Lets not forget, the Philippines is not at war and firing on unarmed civilian vessels is a big no no even in times of war. That would be construed as a war crimeUnder the present details it can only be shown that the Philippines, instead of dialogue and passive enforcement, chooses to solve such problems through the barrel of a loaded gun and then claim self defense. Disappointing to say the least...

Honestly? I don't think so... If you remember the case of the Filipina Domestic worker who was sentenced to death for killing her rapist employer the entire Philippines reacted as well calling for her release.The Taiwanese are reacting over the death of their citizen. Can you really blame emotions to be high when life and death is involved?Granted the Taiwanese president may be milking the issue for his own political ends but the reaction of the citizen is justified.As for your example of police rules of engagement for moving vehicles. Taken from the PNP Operational Procedures:Rule 9. MOVING VEHICLESA moving vehicle shall not be fired upon except when its occupants pose imminent danger of causing death or injury to the police officer or any other person, and that the use of firearm does not create a danger to the public and outweighs the likely benefits of its non-use.In firing upon a moving vehicle, the following parameters should be considered:20 21a. the intent of the fleeing suspect/s to harm the police officer or other persons;b. the capability of the fleeing suspect/s to harm in certainty the police officer or other persons; andc. accessibility or the proximity of the fleeing suspect/s with the police officer and other persons.

http://pnppro10.org/downloads/POP.pdf

Your argument is untrue. Firing on a moving vehicle is only allowed if there is a threat to life. Please be reminded of when the police opened fire on a kidnapping gang's car and killed the kidnapping victim along with the kidnappers, which led to a law banning dark tints from our car windows since the excuse of the police was they did not know the kidnapping victim was in the car...

This is only true in land not on the sea.This about a foreigner who is trying to intrude in our territory thus a warning shot should be made and more should be made if the intruder attempts to illude our PCG. ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO QUESTION THEM AND STOPPED BUT WHEN THE TIME TO BOARD THEM ,THEY ESCAMPERED AWAY.So they got what they want!

In Rules of Engagement, take note the words "POSE IMMINENT DANGER": The mere attempt to ram is already considered an imminent or possible danger. It is within the parameters of the Rules of Engagement to interpret such act as a threat to the PCG lives. In moving vehicles or vessels, it is not only the possession of a weapon by the occupants that is considered as threats, the vehicle or the vessel itself maybe used as a tool to inflict harm. A fleeing vehicle may run over innocent people or may ram other vehicles in the process of escaping.

Both articles from the Philippine Press citing a source of the NBI that there is a possibility of a violation of the Rules of Engagement of the PCG...

If you read it carefully it also says that "Citing the rules of engagement of the PCG, the source pointed out that the Coast Guard personnel cannot fire warning shots to prevent the target vessel from escaping or to force the target vessel to comply with the instructions to stop and be boarded.

Instead, the source explained that personnel in charge of the unit afloat should employ other means necessary to force the target vessel to comply with their instructions. Warning shots are only fired prior to the direct firing at the hostile vessel/craft or its crew member, the source added."

Makes this a very sad case doesn't it? The final results not yet released, but still...

Where did you get your information that the bullet holes were in front?

None of the major news organizations in the Philippines reported on the damage to the Taiwanese ship. Information for this is only currently available from Taiwan. Info from Taiwanese sources can be found on Wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Kuang_Ta_Hsing_No.28_incident

Most of the bulletholes were on the port (left) side of the ship near the stern (back) with several more in the stern. There were only a few bullet holes near the bow (front) but the trajectory shows that they came from the back...

The NBI has finished interviewing the PCG and an NBI source stated the following :

According to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima the NBI investigation is almost done and the NBI only need to go to Taiwan to examine the Taiwanese ship, and inerview the crew of Taiwanese fishing vessel.

At least try to check your information before making a statement that "the bullet holes were in front". Google, Yahoo and Bing are not that hard to use are they?

The NBI will be able to challenge/verify the findings of the Taiwanese forensics team once they are able to examine the boat. As far as I am concerned let the evidence speak for itself.

I believe on this. They're over reacting. What are PCG did was just mandatory. The old man died because it was an accident. Since he was there . And they were already giving warning shots.

I assumed that this people are uncivilized for they do not know why they were being chased and the warning shots they might thought they were already being fired on, until our PCG decided to paralyzed the engine. They may not understand what they did there was trespassing for they don't even know that word.

I sympathize to the family. We Filipinos also feed sad to his fate.

Taiwanese should also accept that. And if ever it will happen to our fishermen trespassing to other territories they will do the same. Sadly here in Philippines its not always on the national news if someone is missing or being killed by trespassing.

So I hope they won't over react and should not hurt our fellow countrymen (OFWs). For what some of the Taiwanese were doin' is injustice.

They should educate some of their uncivilized people. Because here even some of Taiwanese done something to our country we still respect. We leave everything to the law. We don't abuse them. We don't hurt them. We still kind and nice to them.

We don't ask for a war. Nobody want a war. They should understand if they keep on bullying and abuse our OFWs both our country will suffer.

If you committed a sin for long time,this time poaching in Philippine waters,there is always a chance that you will pay and be caught by the long arm of the law and this time death was the punishment via Philippine Coast Guard.I'm sure he is doing that for a long time but had been very lucky and ended on the hands of Philippine Coast Guard !What a price to pay.So ALL PEOPLE ,DON'T COMMIT A SIN so you live longer and see the day that all is happy.

to make it simple you jump on my backyard try to steal or something. and i caught you red handed.i asked you "who are you" "what are you doing on my yard" but no response.trying to evade\.now, i have the right and power to defuse you from fleeing.i have a gun, for security reasons. i don't know if you have weapons on you, so i draw and shot you. but you already at the streets when i got you down.what's the implicit explanation.?

If the Philippine economy were affected how much more the economy of Taiwan. They hired workers from Philippines because they needed it badly, hence, we contributed much on their economic stability. In this way, if they continue holding their pride at the end of the day, they are also affected."An angry one is seldom reasonable, and a reasonable one is seldom angry" Mabuhay and Pilipinas! Mabuhay ang Philippine Coast Guard!

ya right.. most of time Phillippine Coast Guard just shot first then talk later..it is not the first time it happen.. killing innocient fishmen on the open sea..there is always no such things as over-reacting..what if same things happen to Phillipine fishman. what will the Phillippine government do ??? I guess more or likely the same reaction...

The media and the president of Taiwan are just worsening the situation, even some Filipinos here they are inventing stories that some of ofw was killed by the Taiwanese..The two government sucks...thanks mr montero for this blog

I'm not Taiwanese nor Filipino. But from what I know what Taiwan's government and its people are doing now is just ridiculous. In my opinion it's very likely to be true that the fishing boats were on PH territory and tried to run away from the coastguard. I also believe that they were shooting the engine and not the people. I think it's ridiculous that Taiwan wants apologies BEFORE the investigation. They only base everything on what their fishermen told them. Of course they could lie just to not be punished. The best solution for Taiwan would be now to wait till the investigation is over and if they're wrong (most probably) I don't know what they'll need to do to apologize to the Philippines. Anyway, I hope the truth will come out soon. I can't wait to see Taiwanese faces when their government tells them they were wrong.

assuming both sides has a point, isn't it just right to talk about it at a more civilized level or of more diplomatic way, considering that the Philippines and Taiwan is engaged politically, economically and recognized each others' importance? Isn't it uncivilized or absurd to retaliate to Filipinos who is working in Taiwan and their contribution to the economy of Taiwan? What if two countries entangled in disputed issues and each of them reacted like the Taiwanese, an American killed in Taiwanese soil and the Americans will get back to Taiwanese in America? Or an Australian killed in Indonesia? or British killed in Malaysia or Filipino killed in the Meddle East? Is this the kind of behavior the Taiwanese have?? I think it is best to document all discriminatory act of taiwanese towards Filipinos and have it uploaded to youtube so the whole world may know, once it is in the net and earthlings see it it might deter the said creatures in their nasty behavior

What is true right now is that the Taiwanese politicians are doing nothing to stop the harassment of innocent Filipinos in their country. The death of the alleged poacher is just a sorry excuse to advance a sinister agenda which is to boost the failing popularity of the Taiwanese President and to force us to open our backyards for further plundering of our fishery resources.

Filipinos should learn to talk like civilized people first. Firing at an unarmed civilian boat is prohibited by international law, no matter what an armed government ship is doing, such as chasing a trespassing fishing boat. If you consider such barbaric acts OK, then get ready to be creamed by Taiwan's superior firepower. Most of the Taiwan battleships and missiles used in the recent exercise are not made by your so-called ally, the US.

Sir,first, thank you for this well-organized article.second, i consider that there is some mistakes in the shooting incident sectionthe PH coastguard shot all over the boat instead of engine room & machinery room.(if they really shot at ngine room & machinery room, they must lack of shooting training.)

Look at the pics in this site:http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=638&t=3366856&p=1&img=0

will an alleged machine gun be accurate to hit the engine room in a long range? including the behavior of the sea during the firing happens? a fair re-enactment could be a key on those bullet holes.needs further evaluation about the scene is needed and rushing the investigation just to appease one's side will lead to poor conclusion.

If this research is to be credible, please correct the fundamental fact about the location of the incident and the respective extent of jurisdiction right. Among EEZ (200NM), Territorial Water (12 or 24NM), and Internal Water (3NM), full jurisdiction is only available in internal water. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters .

Even in the Territorial Water (12 or 24), innocent passage is permitted WITHOUT notification to the government. At the location of incident (43NM), i.e., an EEZ, the maximal possible jurisdiction right of the Philippine government is to expel the ship using means like water jet. Firing machine guns to an unarmed boat in an EEZ is generally considered illegal, if not piracy as is considered at times. This is the heart of the issue that the Philippine government is evading: why is this illegal and REPEATING use of machine gun is "unintended"?

the critical term there is "innocent passage". thats why the PCG tried to board them and they ran.

another crucial issue is the why are the taiwanese fishermen always poach the waters of other nations. it is not just in the Philippines. this week alone, taiwanese ships were apprehended by Japan and Vietnam.

one of the Taiwanese official said that they can easily wipe out the Philippines if they will go to war because they have 26 warships...yes they have advance weaponry but they don't have an experience as far as war is concerned..Filipino soldiers are better tacticians than yours, they're battling Abu Sayyaf, MILF, MNLF and NPA for years..Taiwan is good only in military drills (one of their F16 just crashed last may 15 during the drill)..shame onTaiwan for talking about EEZ, there are only 23 states recognizing your what so called ROC, your not a country you are only a renegade province of china

The bigger problem here is that the Taiwanese media and politicians are LYINGand telling HALF TRUTHS to fuel "nationalistic anger"

Taiwan is NOT entitled to EEZ since they are NOT a signatory of UNCLOS whichthey cannot even sign because no one recognizes them as an independent state.

They talk about EEZ but I can assure you they have not read the UNCLOS.

Besides, in 1993, Taiwan and the Philippines came into an agreement that theborder will be on the BASHI CHANNEL, that is north of Mavudis Island (Y'amiIsland) which is part of the BATANES province (a political entity in the ourcountry and not just bunch of rocks). Taiwan amicably signed that agreement.

Thank you Max Defense for taking the time to review Taiwanese sources as well as Filipino ones to build a clearer picture. Too much has been said by both sides without the benefit of listening to each others' position- exacerbated even further by media that does not check the integrity of the sources or making omissions to suit their biases and political leanings. I doubt we will ever learn the truth about this incident now that it has been appropriated to carrying burdens that are politically determined. (PS. I prefer to call it an "incident" rather than a "murder" as my compatriots would have it, as the investigation has not yet been concluded)

From a diplomatic standpoint, I am dismayed that diplomacy efforts failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion and that our Taiwanese government has resorted to these military measures to express its displeasure with the Philippine authorities. The assessment by the Philippine side that Taiwan's president is under pressure by the general population's dissatisfaction is correct in my opinion. Thus, President Ma would be eager to show that neither he nor Taiwan is weak. Hence, the insistence on the One-China Principle on the Philippines side in approaching this issue is one of the core reasons for the Taiwanese public indignation. To elaborate, the Taiwanese government and its people are particularly sensitive to their lack of membership to the UN and have suffered decades of humiliation internationally. In the interests of diplomacy, it was unhelpful to approach the dispute under that framework, that resulted in a perception of disrespect of our sovereignty by the Taiwan side, particularly from the Philippines- a friendly ally with which we have enjoyed many levels of (quasi-)governmental exchanges, economic cooperation, and civilian exchanges. The resultant exhibition of military might in response to the breakdown of diplomacy, to my mind, is a little hasty and excessive (even to the point of aggressive). However, it helped to restore some national dignity for the Taiwanese people that had been starved from as a consequence of the One China Policy. Unfortunately, this pride was gained at the expense of the Philippines who cannot match up to Taiwan's military might, a sore point for the Philippines, thus harming Filipino dignity and sovereignty. In response, the Taiwan investigation delegation has been rejected to co-investigate with the NBI with De Lima asserting Filipino sovereignty. I expect this sort of back and forth assertions from both sides to continue until they reach some consensus that is fitting to the dignity of both sovereign entities. As of yet, "sorry, seems to be the hardest word" from both sides.

With regard to Taiwan's show of military force, I don't believe that a single shot will be fired in anger or otherwise. According to embedded media on board military vessels, the "military drills" consist of non threatening open sea rescue in cooperation with the coast guard; on board fire damage control; and anti-aircraft defense readiness (of which the Philippines Air Force is unlikely to pose serious threat). Both our respective nations have treaties with the US that safeguard our security and US regional interests. I seriously doubt that neither Taiwan nor Philippines will escalate tensions to those levels necessary for US intervention and arbitration. Even with Taiwan's abundant stockpile of munitions and materiel (in preparation for confrontation with China), it would be the height of folly to discharge them in the direction of an American ally. Besides, Taiwan would not want to jeopardize any future arms procurement from the US. I believe that the US has been well informed beforehand of Taiwanese maneuvers as well as the Philippines responses and is content that both sides are working together to resolve this incident. As such, it is still well within US sphere of influence, thus it has remained relatively quiet over the incident. However, it appears that China (PRC) is seeking to gain from this incident through its rhetoric, but no concrete action as of yet.

It saddens me deeply to learn of Filipino OFW's becoming collateral and the undeserved hostility they are facing. I condemn any acts of violence on any Filipinos and sincerely wish that the perpetrators will be prosecuted for attacking a defenseless person that had nothing to do with the incident. I believe both our respective peoples have much to gain and learn from each other having shared similar histories of foreign occupation, colonization, horrific domestic violence from authoritarian governments, etc. I have great admiration for the tenacity and optimism of the Filipino peoples to have endured and yet lived to tell the tale of regaining their nation through democratic processes (despite imperfections) and people power as much as we Taiwanese have. Any peoples who embody that capacity to overcome such adversity are a force to be reckoned with and deserving of our respect. Thus, I have no disparaging remarks to make of the Philippines or her peoples. However, I hope you will forgive me if the actions of your government do not fill me with confidence as much as I am skeptical of my own government's abilities, given their checkered histories in handling crises. After we have put this ghastly affair behind us, I am still willing to extend my hand in friendship and hope we continue to be good friends and neighbors. Maybe we have spent too much time apart and just needed sit down a good chat over a cup of tea. Surely WE can still manage that, even if our respective governments can't?

I do not want to make any opinions as my knowledge of international law, territorial law, etc are not exactly good enough to consider putting in an opinion. But to Lotuspond, I applaud your comment. I am sure that the death of one (regardless the race) is really saddening and a lot of people have responded emotionally. Yet, you have been able to carefully state your opinions without seemingly being driven by raw emotions. I do agree with your sentiments and I hope our government leaders will be able to resolve this issue without using worries of money, popularity, or re-election (if there are any from any side) to drive their actions towards the resolution. Also, I do hope our people maintain our civilized actions toward each other. I myself am a Chinese but also a Filipino. And I am proud to be both. So hearing about tensions between our countries makes me really sad and on edge. I do hope our countries can resolve this issue soon. I am very much for our nations to be friends rather than enemies.

" However, I hope you will forgive me if the actions of your government do not fill me with confidence as much as I am skeptical of my own government's abilities, given their checkered histories in handling crises."

--> Government is still composed of people who can make great things, but also, make great mistakes. Just as you are skeptical of your own government's abilities, I am at times, skeptical of my own. And I'm sure there are a lot of other people from different nations who believe in their government but also hold doubt at certain times. That's why I really like your last statement: "Surely WE can still manage that, even if our respective governments can't?" because although our leaders are the ones who can deal with this in the global level, we are still, in the end, the ones who really decide how we choose to build a relationship with other people (leader or not). So again, thank you for sharing your opinion.

To MD: Thanks for the article. I was looking for something that could give insights on both sides of this issue and you've given the facts and also labeled the section with your opinion. Thank you.

someone is really enjoying this opportunity and no wonder somebody will be used as tools for their convenience..http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bd3_1368506255http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=40a_1368512406http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33a_1368683547http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=197_1368638634

Though I appreciate your effort, this post lacks a lot of facts and information and hence is misleading and will hurt the friendship between the people of both countries. If you will, I would be happy to provide a comprehensive perspective from an educated Taiwanese's perspective. You may read it and decide if you will accept this contribution to your blog. At the very least, this will help stop both parties from regarding each other as irrational, given the popularity of this blog.

let us not rule out the possibility that Taiwanese fishermen have guns on board, too. They could just throw away all their guns at sea to make it look like they did not have one...here in the Philippines, we have not heard about the result of the investigation yet but rest-assured we are much at rage for how the Taiwanese people debase their selves by bullying, intimidating and hurting the Filipinos working in their country.we respect you, people and do not make any local violence a national issue. also, we never permit our fellow Filipinos to get away from crime if indeed they committed a crime...

I agree on the fact that we are over-reacting by seeking apology before the investigation ends. However, I do not believe in the words said the the PCG.

We have provided evidence(photographs of Guang Ta Hsin 28's current condition at http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=638&t=3366856&p=1&img=0) showing that over 50 shots was made on the boat but I have not yet seen any evidence from your side. PCG claims that our fishing boats tried to ram the Philippine boat but we have not found any impact marks on our boat. Besides, we are not given access to your patrol boat for investigation. We can not believe in what you say unless fair investigation has been done and relevant evidence (other than words) has been provided.

"TRIED to ram" is different from "RAMMED" or had contact to check any dents or impact marks on the boat. Definitely no dent/impact marks can be seen, so why keeping that argument alive? if a thief intended to steal a bag but unable to grab it, will there be a finger print of the suspect be found on the bag? however, the intention is there to steal it.

"PCG claims that our fishing boats tried to ram the Philippine boat but we have not found any impact marks on our boat" you said it yourself "tried to ram". So it is impossible to find impact marks when there is no impact that happen

By trying to RAM the PCG vessel, it can already be interpreted as an IMMINENT THREAT to the lives of the PCG sailors. If there is IMMINENT THREAT, Rules of Engagement allows you to shoot or disable that threat. It doesn't mean that if the occupants are unarmed that they don't pose the ability to inflict harm. By trying to RAM their fishing boat, they have already presented an intent to harm the PCG.

In today's Manila Bulletin it has indiciated that PCG may have violated rules of engagement in Balintang incident Citing the rules of engagement of the PCG, the source pointed out that the Coast Guard personnel cannot fire warning shots to prevent the target vessel from escaping or to force the target vessel to comply with the instructions to stop and be boarded.

Instead, the source explained that personnel in charge of the unit afloat should employ other means necessary to force the target vessel to comply with their instructions.

You can't just shot first.. killing people then telling other people that "I don't mean to kill you"... Again. from my understanding that Phillippine Coast Guard has done similiar action killing innocient fishmen several times before in the past years.Such action should not be allow anymore and a formal apology is require to solve this problem peacefully.

Apparently - Like ignorant Filipino leaders, like ignorant Filipino inhabitants. The whole country needs intensive "International Ocean Law" education to promote their common knowledge before understanding what criminal activities have been committed by Filipino government, perhaps it is merely a legal pirate organization.

I start wondering why I am making such a constructive suggestion to these ignorant people - I bet they do not understand a word I said.

Okay, my deep apologies goes to the family of the victim and to the people of Taiwan. The PCG guys just forgot the rules of engagement that should be observed, especially during the heat of the hours when this poachers tried to evade arrest from our law enforcers.

I hope Taiwan do the same for the atrocities committed by their citizens towards our OFWs like in these links:

I think this article refers to Mainland chinese 大陆华人. I have been in Taiwan many times and observed that almost all Taiwanese people are tidy, courteous and helpful. Something they have imbibed from the Japanese (being a Japanese colony for half a decade).

Lol... tell that to the koreans that died trying to reason with Chinese pirates. Chinese pirates don't have any regard for territorial waters of their neighbors. They stabbed one of the korean coastguards and killed him.

What do you expect from Taiwan. They are not civilized people. They are a petty group of individuals. They even sent people to spy on the koreans in the World Baseball Classic. They still lost even after that.

Why are we getting shit while Korea and Japan just scoff and ignore Taiwan as some sort of disease? They think we're some pushover. Fuck Taiwan honestly. It's better for us to ally ourselves with other East Asian nations except China.

We don't need Taiwan. There are more reputable business partners like South Korea that won't treat us like bitches. Who the fuck does Taiwan think they are. Some random rogue state of China that isn't recognized by the UN.

this blog is being respected by both side by exchanging opinions and insight, so please refrain from being a narrow-minded too. I respect Taiwan's fighting for their own identity to the international community due to one-china policy but I guess it's not consistent to what it shows. I just notice that a third party is just fueling the situation to get it worse and unfortunately it's working...

???? I don't get what you are trying to say??All I know is that if person commit a crime in Taiwan. If he is prove guilty in court with trial. He has go to jail and serve his sentence. We are talking about a cold murder case here!!!While there are about 1.35 billion chinese population in mainland china and 23.31 million population in Taiwan while many other chinese live around the world in other countries??? It is fact has most of Taiwanese people are very civilized even when they travel to other countries around the world..Well.. Back to the topic. PCG has done the wrong thing and a formal apology is require to solve this problem peacefully.

I've worked in Taiwan for 9 years and I've learned and loved Taiwanese people and their culture. I have many Taiwanese friends up to now and I was saddened by the news I've read and from the words of my friends who are still working in Taiwan.Taiwanese people are being unfair and harsh towards innocent Filipino workers there. Please wait until the investigations were done..

Taiwanese are mostly racist and arrogant people. They accused most Filipinos as corrupt, slaves and deficient in mental faculties who can be bullied and pushed around. Unless you belong to the families of Philippine's business tycoons, you can never find a true Taiwanese friend. Believe me, my friend. :))

Now, some of the Anonymous Filipinos has become more and more uncivilized here. Is that how you treat people who try to reason with you ????? Well, I do believe that most of the Filipinos is well educated & civilized and they can well determine that the PCG action of killing fishmen is totally wrong.Please do not trying to get "off" the topic of that "A Taiwanese Fishman" was killed in "International Water" by PCG and it is not the first time it "Happen".P.S. The so call Korea - Mainland China incident has nothing to do with Taiwan. Please do not trying to mix apple with orange..

Thank you for the information. I also don't think the coast guards killed the fisherman intentionally because as the Taiwanese said, Philippines is like a chihuahua in combat capability, so why would PH risk war if they aren't capable?

Philippines doesn't like war not because they are not capable. They don't like war because they are saving their people :)

I am just glad PH is fixing this in the right way. I just also hope that the Taiwanese will be fair with the OFW's. It's okay to be angry, but not letting them eat in restaurants, buy in markets and hurting them physically is very uneducated.

They might be cheap or weak as other people say but at least they don't do that to others.

And to the fishersman's wife, My prayers be with you and sent to your husband. Stay strong..

Fuck taiwan and its stupid people. Until they learn english, they shouldn't be goofing outside of their countey.

Who the heck cares about Jones Cup? Or the smelly taiwanese basketball teams? They can fuck themselves and nobody would care. The whole world should stop giving attention to these bastards and stop sending workers in that country. Their economy is in shit and so is their president. He is just issuing this propaganda threata to save his ass from being ejected in its seat.

If all foreign workers leave Taiwan, that shithole will stop and they'll know what thousands of skilled workers mean to their fucking turtle economy.

I do sympathize with the taiwanese people with the loss of their fellow countrymen.. Im a filipino and i've been reading articles and blogs regarding this issue.. what concerned me the most is that why do taiwanese people throw their revenge to innocent filipino people who are only working? why are they treated like criminals and dogs as if they were the one who commit those act? why are those taiwanese store owners deprived filipino to buy to their store? why does your government immediately sanction us without waiting for the final investigation to finish? you demand for apology, we did but you didn't acknowledge it.. what kind of apology do you guys want? Our government even sent body to personally show their deepest apology but you guys rejected it and demand for additional sanctions. all of this happen because of one incident, one incident that could've been avoided by simply respecting other's territorial claims and jurisdiction. it wouldn't happen if you guys didn't crossed our boundary.. that's the way i see it... so it's up to you guys how will you see it.. nevertheless i still respect all taiwanese..

Hopefully truth will prevail! Thanks for Mr. Max for the enlightening the public at this point in time. In my opinion when you try to show disrespect to an authority by trying to ram your vessel to a much bigger Philippine Coast Guard then they (PCG)have the right to disable the boat engine of the one trying to ram.

Dear Taiwan's Government, A single incident does not define who Filipinos really are. Stop acting like a 4 year old kid who losses he's toy, We do not care how rich a country can be, Racism is a mark of an uncivilized country, you do not put God in your hearts,You do not know how to respect other people! filipinos in taiwan are being Harassed, Bullied and etc ! before you make any single decision and movements,better think first not only once nor thrice, but a thousand times! i believed, GOD ,Jesus Christ is With us ! God bless Philippines! Protect our country from the evil ones! Godspeed!!

I'm just curious, the NBI said that they have the video that shows that the coast guard is not intent on killing but if this is true, why didn't they show the video in the first place and before the sanctions were placed? Do they have something to hide or do they have some other hidden agenda?

We're shaking in our boots. Taiwan forgets who its allies are. Phillipines is recognized in the UN. Excluding China, all of the other east asian neighbors respect us. Do you see japanese respecting Taiwan? They just find it funny/pathetic how some taiwanese want to be japanese. We can count Korea out as well. Korea doesn't even know where Taiwan is. They are also oblivious to how uncivilized Taiwan acted. But other people know otherwise. Booing another country's sports team is typical uncivilized Taiwanese behavior.

I was pretty calm but I saw how vicious Taiwan's comments were on us filipinos. They called us prostitutes, whores, lazy workers, a "no culture" society, poor, dark skinned (good job at being racist btw), uncivilized, ugly, slaves. Screw that. As far as I'm concerned ladies and gentlemen, Taiwan is nothing to me now.

I want all everyone from the Phillipines to see this and think about how "generously" the other side is treating us. All unwarranted delusional sense of superiority.

Wake up and smell the coffee!! The Filipino Coat Guard used excessive force and kill a Taiwanese fisherman off it's own waters!! The GPS in the boat that was shot up proved it. FYI, the boat was riddled with bullets, if the Filipino Coast Guard was just aiming at the pilot's wheel that would not be the case. The Philippines needs to issue a formal apology, send the murders for trail in Taiwan courts, and compensate the victim's family. Taiwan is a civilized country, unlike the Philippines, where the laws mean nothing and elected officials and civil servants are all as corrupt as can be. What can anyone expect from a bunch of classless savages.

Funny how Taiwan like Mainland China threaten economic warfare. That's just being a bully. Taiwanese and chinese trashed japanese products/stores due to a territorial dispute. They also boycotted korean products over some dumb insignificant taekwondo match. I'm pretty sure Taiwan cheated anyway.

I was surprised with Taiwan's crazy reaction but at the same time wasn't surprised. They are technically chinese after all. Taiwan isn't called the Republic of China for nothing. I just find it funny how they call us uncivilized. China's history and culture isn't even technically chinese. Chinese claim cultures of foreign invaders as their own. China's logic is Asia belongs to China. What a sick joke. Now they harass the Phillipines and try to flex their muscles like some pirate nation. Yet they blame Japan for denying history? Practice what you preach my friend.

It's a matter of time before the Phillipines rises. The two Koreas will eventually reunite as well. Then China will have no friends. But please... feel free to burn all those bridges. We'll see how well that serves you.

It seems we have not yet learned from previous wars. A single unfortunate incident will bring only more pain if we keep fanning it. Let's investigate, come up with the truth and act together accordingly. All ill comments and actions will only bring more hatred and confusion, which can lead to events that we may all regret.

A former naval officer of the Philippine Navy, initially a reservist before becoming an active officer, opted to retire early and migrate to another country. Aside from being in the service, he has been following Philippine and regional defence issues, as well as military technology and industrial movements, and developments in regional military upgrades since the mid 1990s. He has been involved in other defence sites & minor publications for the past several years, and a regular at regional defence exhibitions & symposiums. Currently works as a systems consultant for a foreign military organisation. As a defence writer, he has no political affiliation, and would not hesitate to criticise any political leader, organisation, or political part when issues on defence and security of the Philippines are believed to be in peril.